OLIVER PLUNKETT: CANONISED 12th OCTOBER 1975; ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH
OLIVER PLUNKETT
ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH
CANONISED 12th OCTOBER 1975 - FEAST DAY 1st JULY
Oliver Plunkett was born in 1625. Descended from James Plunkett, 8th Baron Killeen, he was related to the Earls of Roscommon, Fingal, Lords Louth and Dunsany.
By 1605, the Plantations had been established in Ireland by the English Crown as a means to subdue the native Catholic Irish by populating the counties with protestant Lowland Scots and Northern English - Loyalists to the (Protestant) Crown. From the time of Elizabeth I, under the Penal Laws, Catholics had been barred from education or holding public office, ensuring that the Irish Privy Council and the Lords Justice who composed the benches hearing and applying the laws of Ireland would always be Anglicans.
Oliver Plunkett’s education was initially entrusted to his cousin, Patrick Plunkett, Abbot of St Mary’s Dublin. Afterwards, because of the dearth of educational opportunities in Ireland for Catholics, he journeyed to Rome to study.
In 1652, Cromwell’s army occupied Ireland. In his bid to subdue Ireland and crush her moral and religious spirit, Cromwell applied existing anti-Catholic legislation, implementing the Penal Laws against Catholics, (who constituted the vast majority of the population). Large areas of land were confiscated. As the result of the violence against them and resulting famine, the Irish population was decimated-some estimates at 80%.
As had occurred in England, Catholic churches were transferred to the Church of Ireland, (Anglican), Church. Catholics were then compelled to pay tithes to the Anglican church. They were banned from living in towns, banned from speaking Irish and denied the right to vote. Catholics were compelled to pay “recusant fines” for non-attendance at Anglican services or refusal to take Anglican communion, (apostasy to a Catholic). The Anglican Church wardens acted as spies and reported on those who did not attend or take communion. Catholics were, of course, barred from membership of the Irish Parliament and landholders had their lands confiscated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_Laws
Catholic bishops were expelled from the country. Priests had to register. As Mass was illegal, attendance at Mass entailed imprisonment and priests were liable to instant execution when found. Mass was consequently held in secret, Catholics attending Mass in secret Rock Masses hidden in fields and forests in the countryside, with lookouts keeping watch for English soldiers.
The beautiful, plaintive love song, An raibh tu ag an gCarraig” (Were you at the Rock) was used as a code to let the local Irish people know whether or not it was safe to attend Mass at the rock.
[For a recording of the love song by Liam O’Maonlai: “An raibh tu ag an gCarraig” (Were you at the Rock) see prior post and this link:
See also Sissel singing the same song with the Chieftains:
An article which states that the deprivation of Mass during Covid has led to a revival of attendance at the Mass Rocks;
To provide education for the Catholic youth, local priests and religious held “Hedge Schools” in fields, or in secret in private houses, in order to teach the children, the Hedge schools operating until the 19th century.
Oliver Plunkett, as a consequence of the political forces operating in Ireland, remained studying in Rome. He was ordained a priest in 1654 and became a theological professor at the College of Propaganda Fide. He was appointed Archbishop of Armagh.
The Restoration of Charles II, who was married to a Catholic and attempted tolerance after the oppressive Puritan rule, saw a relaxation of the harshest of the Penal Laws. Archbishop Plunkett arrived back in Ireland and established the Jesuit College in Drogheda in 1670, which included both Catholic and protestant students.
However, in 1673 the Test Act was introduced, (long title; ”An Act for preventing dangers which may happen from popish recusants”), the purpose of which was to impose civil disabilities on Catholics in England, Ireland and Scotland. This Act was followed by another test Act in 1678, which imposed obligations on all persons fulfilling any office to take oaths of Supremacy - that is, that the head of the Church is the King or Queen of England – disavowing the Pope as the head of the Church; subscribing to a declaration against Transubstantiation, (the Real Presence), and to swear to receive Anglican communion within three months of admittance to office. So, while in the period after the Puritan repression there had been a lessening of the barriers of Catholics to office, this putative tolerance was offset by the operation of the Test Acts, the intention of which was the exclusion of all Catholics from any office of influence.
Archbishop Plunkett refused to swear the oath demanded by the Test Act, following which the Jesuit College was closed and demolished.
Taking advantage of the populist hysteria that had been generated by allegations by Titus Oates of a Popish Plot - later established as fabrications, the Earl of Essex, (who had previously been Lord Lieutenant of Ireland), brought a fabricated allegation that Archbishop Plunkett had plotted a French invasion. Essex’s allegations were made simply as a political mechanism to use as leverage in his ambitions against the Duke of Ormonde. Despite a price on his head, Archbishop Plunkett refused to leave his people and was arrested and tried on a charge of conspiracy to bring 20,000 French soldiers into the country and levying a tax on his clergy to support 70,000 men for rebellion.
The trial was moved to London as no conviction would have been obtained in Ireland. The first grand jury no-billed the trial but he was not released. He was tried in a second trial which was basically a totalitarian show trial and was, naturally, convicted in June 1681.
The verdict was based on the finding that he was guilty of treason, not for inciting rebellion, for which he was charged, but for “promoting the Roman faith.”
In passing judgment, the Chief Justice said: “You have done as much as you could to dishonour God in this case; for the bottom of your treason was your setting up of your false religion, than which there is not anything more displeasing to God, or more pernicious to mankind in the world.”
Archbishop Plunkett’s response to the verdict was; “Deo gratias.”
Charles II, sympathetic to the Catholic faith, (in fact, converting on his death-bed), nevertheless could not save Archbishop Plunkett because of the prevailing political hysteria. Lord Essex, apparently repenting of his machinations, made a plea to Charles II for mercy on behalf of Archbishop Plunkett. The King’s furious response was: “His blood be on your head – you could have saved him but would not. I would have saved him but dare not.”
Archbishop Plunkett was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 1 July 1681. This penalty, which was imposed on most of the priests of these times and others who were viewed as spiritual threats to the regime – (the substance of the “treason” charge being the crime of being Catholic priests), involved hanging almost to the point of death, then emasculating, (removal of penis and testicles), disembowelling, (removal of organs through an incision), beheading and the body quartered, (chopped into 4 pieces).
Archbishop Plunkett’s body was initially placed in two tin boxes and buried in St Giles in the Fields Church next to five Jesuits who had previously been executed. The head was later taken to Drogheda at St Peter’s Church and the body to Downside Abbey.
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